C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

      The following article is a combination of a couple of different articles I wrote for some different magazines, and a few brief posts that I've written on this blog in years' past.  I hope you enjoy the outcome—and find that it offers some valuable insight, AND a kick-ass training program for packing on the mass! Old School Muscle Training Strategies of the Classic Bodybuilders      Most bodybuilders today think that newer is always better; doesn’t matter if it’s the latest pill, protein powder, diet, or workout program.   Well, I’m here to tell you that’s not always the case.   I think it’s time some of the old-school training strategies once again saw the light of day.   In fact, I think if you combine many of the ideas of the “old-timers” with today’s state-of-the-art supplements, the results could be amazing.       In the following article, I’m going to outline many of the best strategies the old-time bodybuilders had for building slabs of

Three On/ One Off Redux A New Twist on an Old Classic      When I began lifting weights – sometime in the late ‘80s – there was really only one training split that most bodybuilders used: the three on, one off scheme.  For any of you unfamiliar with this split, it works like this: You split your body three ways, and then you train for three days straight before taking a day off.  After your day off, you begin the split over again.      Most bodybuilders of that era trained legs on one day, and then split their upper body into two sessions; some lifters trained antagonistic bodyparts together on one day – chest and back, or biceps and triceps – while others would train all of their push muscles on one day – chest, shoulders, and triceps – and their pull muscles on the other day – back and biceps.      But the three on, one off split eventually fell the way of the dinosaurs.  In the early ‘90s Dorian Yates entered the scene, bringing with him his “blood-and-guts” style of train

     Sorry for the long delay in posts.  I will try to make up for it this month by publishing numerous posts/articles.  Here's the first:       For years—back when I was writing almost monthly for IronMan magazine —IM’s editor-in-chief, Steve Holman, penned many articles on his personal brand of high-intensity, briefer-is-better, training: something Holman called “positions-of-flexion” training, or just POF for short.      Holman first revealed this “new” form of training sometime in the mid ‘90s.   I can’t remember the exact year, but I think it was sometime in ’94 or ’95, and it was highly touted by IM as a new “state-of-the-art” form of high-intensity training.   (IM took advantage, at the time, of the rising popularity HIT was experiencing, especially under the incarnation of it that Dorian Yates was espousing as the key to his Mr.O dominance.)      POF was based on something that I thought—and still do think—to be fairly inventive.   Holman’s thought was that